A botanical soda first made in 1896 has been resurrected to appeal to consumers looking for something new, and low in sugar, in adult soft drinks. Lurvill’s Delight, described as a premium craft-style botanical soda, is made using Welsh spring water and natural ingredients, including nettle, dock and juniper berry extract. With no added sugar it contains just 66 calories per 33cl bottle. The drink,…

Sales of beers, wines and spirits grew 3% and soft drinks sales were up 9.3% in the retail trade during the Olympic Games, according to Nielsen. Team GB secured a famous haul of 67 medals, their best total since they hosted the Games in 1908, and Brits were keen to toast their success. The Nielsen data is for the four weeks to August 13, and…

Soft drinks increased sales by 2.2% to £3.1bn in the convenience channel in 2015, according to the 2016 Britvic Soft Drinks Review (Nielsen, 52 w/e 09 Jan 2016). This was ahead of the total soft drinks market, which contracted by 0.6%. Changing shopper behaviour, with a clear move towards convenience, is helping to drive growth for this channel. Most of soft drinks growth in convenience…

Leading drinks producers have voiced their disappointment about the UK’s new ‘sugar tax’ introduced in last week’s budget, and are thought to be considering a legal challenge. Under the proposals, which are set to come into effect in 2018, drinks containing more than 8g or sugar per 100ml will face a charge of 24p per litre, while products with between 5g and 8g of sugar…

Soft drinks and energy drinks have been hitting headlines for all the wrong reasons lately, with sugar and caffeine being blamed for all manner of ills. But the market remains buoyant. The latest figures, from Zenith International in the British Soft Drinks Association’s UK Soft Drinks Report 2014, show it grew 3{7c69fd72f8e2bab9ee87ef5a2685d86c0107c79a8a610a3574925e3ec9a3ba47} to £15.5 billion in 2013, while volumes climbed 2{7c69fd72f8e2bab9ee87ef5a2685d86c0107c79a8a610a3574925e3ec9a3ba47} to 14.5 billion litres.

Soft drinks group AG Barr has snapped up cocktail mixer producer Funkin in a deal worth up to £21 million. The maker of Scottish soft drink Irn Bru will pay an intial £16.5 million to Funkin’s founding shareholders, plus up to a further £4.5 million depending on financial performance targets.  Funkin offers a range of syrups, purees and cocktail mixers and has listings across the…

Thatchers has launched two ciders targeted at younger drinkers. Thatchers Red is a red apple cider made from Katy apples, for red colour and soft fruitiness, and Jonagold Red apples for mellow sweetness.  It is targeted at 18 to 24-year-olds who have come into cider through fruit and flavoured drinks. Red has an abv of 4% and comes in 50cl and 33cl glass bottles as…